May 3 (Bloomberg) -- Dell Inc., the world’s third-largest
personal-computer maker, said it’s investigating allegations
that one of its resellers was involved in a possible transaction
with Syria.

Computer equipment from Dell has been sold to the Syrian
government through BDL Gulf, an authorized reseller for Dell in
the Middle East and Africa, the New York Times reported today,
citing e-mails, cash-transfer statements and other documents.

“We have no details to provide on the investigation except
that it is under way,” Jess Blackburn, a spokesman for Round
Rock, Texas-based Dell, said in an e-mailed statement. “Dell
requires its resellers to follow U.S. trade requirements, just
as Dell does. Resellers of Dell products and services are
contractually prohibited from selling or shipping any technology
to a customer in a restricted country.”

Representatives of BDL Gulf didn’t immediately respond to a
request for comment outside regular business hours. BDL is an
authorized Dell reseller, according to its website.

Syria has obtained equipment from U.S.-based manufacturers
in the past. Hewlett-Packard Co. products used for a Syrian
surveillance system were sold by a partner firm that didn’t know
where the gear was being shipped, the computer maker told the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a letter late last
year.

Syria Computers

Hewlett-Packard equipment worth more than $500,000 was
installed in computer rooms in Syria, underpinning a
surveillance system being built to track citizens’ e-mails and
Internet use, Bloomberg News reported in November 2011. The
Italian company running the project, Area SpA, bought the
equipment through resellers in Italy, according to the report.
Area has since pulled the plug on the project.

The New York Times initially reported that BDL Gulf is
owned by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The newspaper later
corrected the story, saying that the information was erroneous.

Neither Alwaleed “nor his senior advisors are aware of a
connection with this company, BDL Gulf,” Heba Fatani, a
spokeswoman for Alwaleed, wrote in an e-mailed statement to
Bloomberg. “The first they learned of this allegation was
through media reports.”